Committee rejects remodel for new senior center office

The Door County Board Property Committee Wednesday rejected a major remodeling of the former county Highway Department office building on 14th Avenue in Sturgeon Bay for use as office space for services provided at the county’s Senior Resources Center.

The county’s Human Services Department, under a state mandate, established in 2013 an Aging and Disabled Resources Center (ADRC) in the county’s Government Center building — the former courthouse — in downtown Sturgeon Bay. In an attempt to better serve older and disabled adults with a one-stop location, the center was moved last summer to the Senior Center building.

In addition to mandating that all 72 Wisconsin counties establish an ADRC, the state and federal governments require a level of staffing that’s created overcrowding conditions in Door County, first when the center was in the downtown government center, and continuing at the Senior Center site.

Door County Human Services Director Joe Krebsbach told county supervisors recently some ADRC staffers are sharing a desk in spaces designed as closets.

The Senior Center is located next to the old highway shops, which were vacated in 2004 when a new shop/office complex was opened on South Duluth Avenue.

The vacant highway buildings have been suggested for re-use by other county departments, most recently as an ambulance station.

In the past month, Door County Buildings and Grounds Director Wayne Spritka inspected the office building for use by the ADRC staff. He told the Property Committee the structure would required gutting and remodeling with an estimated $300,000 cost and would take about a year to complete.

Krebsbach said he’s mandated to add staff in the near future, unable to wait a year or to move ahead.

An alternative modular office building — essentially a mobile home laid out for office use — could provide the space at an estimated at $75,000 for a two-year lease and site preparation, both Krebsbach and Spritka told the committee. It could be in place next to the Senior Center building in a matter of weeks, they said.

Staff would still interview clients in the center, but would have their offices in the modular building.

Krebsbach said city of Sturgeon Bay officials would allow the temporary placement of the modular structure and would not require separate restroom facilities, eliminating costly plumbing work.

Krebsbach and Spritka also have been meeting with more than a dozen design contractors for developing plans for a new senior center, including space for the ADRC staff.

The county is seeking new proposals after determining a plan developed in 2010, and tabled by the county board then, is too outdated to upgrade, given changing state and federal requirements for staffing and services.

The Property Committee adopted a resolution to hire Milwaukee based Venture Architects for a preliminary design for a new Senior Center at a fee of $25,000.

The design is needed to seek grants and gifts from the community to pay for the majority of the project, former County Board member Dale Wiegand told the Property Committee meeting in January as a representative of a group known as Friends of The Senior Center.